UPS has lent its logistics expertise many times over the last decade to help UNICEF provide humanitarian supplies to the people who need it most. As part of UNICEF's campaign to help Syrian children this winter, UPS is delivering 20,000 winter clothing kits from the U.S. to Syrian refugees in Lebanon and Iraq.

“When I think of children in the cold and unbearable conditions in Syria, it breaks my heart,” says Kim Pearson, Sales Manager at UPS in New Jersey. “My Saturday was easy to give up because it’s for those children.”

This is one of the most complex relief efforts UPS and UNICEF have partnered for since the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, when UPS moved supplies from multiple locations across the U.S. in less than 48 hours to quickly reach children whose homes and schools were destroyed.

Humanitarian Supply Chain Logistics Manager Melody Davidson helped coordinate the winter clothing shipments over several weeks, traveling to New Jersey from UPS headquarters in Atlanta to see the kitting effort through. “It’s about the children," Davidson says. "They have nothing to do with this [conflict]; it’s not their fault. Anything that we can do to help them get through the winter season is a great thing.”

Chip Chappelle, Director of Carrier Relations in Atlanta, also traveled to New Jersey to oversee the operation and volunteer his time. “As a parent of five children, I can only imagine the plight of a family having to flee their home,” he says. “They’re living in a makeshift camp in another country where they don’t have recognized residency, they have no job, they have no income, they have children to provide for, and it’s starting to turn cold.”

UPS mobilizes its worldwide network of staff, warehouses, and shipping and freight services to help UNICEF in emergencies. It also lends its logistics expertise to enhance UNICEF’s own efforts at distributing humanitarian supplies around the world.

On October 23, volunteers will pack another 17,500 kits at UPS facilities in Louisville, KY. The kits will then be shipped to Lebanon, where UNICEF will distribute them to refugees across the region.